Leon got out of the car and tossed me the keys. It appeared that he had not done any visible damage to the car. So, I decided that I was alright with him. Granted, tonight was not the best night for people to be introducing themselves to me as potential friends. I had just lost one, a good one, and I wasn't really keen on the idea of trusting anyone else right now. I felt a huge amount of betrayal.

Letty got out of the car and went directly inside the house. I watched her walk away. I didn't follow. I stood outside, waiting for Vince. I was starting to get nervous when he didn't show up after a couple of minutes. I was about to jump back into the car and go looking for him when I saw his car lights pull onto the street. A sigh of relief ran through my body. He parked in the road, next to the curb, and joined Leon, Jesse, and me in the driveway.

"Thought they'd got you," I said, as he approached us.

"They can't ever get me. I'm untouchable," he replied. It was obvious by his remark, as well as his swagger, that he had been drinking.

"Well, dude, we should try to stay together when the cops bust in like that. Meet at that parking deck, or something. At least then I'll know when they do finally haul your off ass to jail," I joked with him.

"We can do that. But, you got to understand, I'm like jello. There's no way they could ever get a hold of this. They ain't got nothing on me," he slurred cockily.

"Jello? Please!" I exclaimed. "You'll be singing a different tune when you're sitting in that cell. Besides, you've been drinking. That's about it."

"Well that's true," he agreed.

"Guys want to come inside? Have a beer?" I asked the group.

"Yes," Vince said without a second thought. He led the way to the basement door. I knew Mia was probably asleep and didn't want to wake her up.

When we walked in, I noticed that Letty had brought the phone down from the kitchen. She was sitting in the armchair fully absorbed in a conversation with someone. She was speaking Spanish. This was curious. I knew that Letty knew Spanish but rarely did I hear her speak it. It was pretty sexy. I didn't know enough conversational Spanish to really pick up on much of what she was saying. In regards to Spanish, all I knew was that she wasn't talking about cars.

"Para el amor de Dios," she said. "¡Supéralo!"

I opened up the refrigerator and grabbed beers for the guys. I was trying to not pay her any attention. If she didn't want to speak the same language as us, that was her deal. I looked over at her, to offer her a beer.

"No sé. Quizá cinco," she laughed. She nodded at me. Apparently, that meant she wanted one. I walked over to her and handed her a beer. She smiled, but did not say anything- in English anyway.

"Pendejo…Si, manana, adios," she said, hanging up the phone. Those words I definitely knew.

I was choosing not to recognize this blatant disregard.

"What was that all about?" Vince asked curiously.

"Nothing," Letty said, shaking it off.

"Sounded like a fun conversation to me. What's going down tomorrow?" Leon joked.

"Hey, new guy, thanks for listening in," Letty retorted.

"What? I thought it was interesting. I didn't know it was some kind of a secret," he replied casually.

"Dominic, um, can I smoke in here?" Jesse asked.
"Nah, man. Let's take it outside," I told him. He got up, grabbed his beer, and walked over towards the door. I followed him outside. But, before I closed the door behind us, I looked over at Vince.

"Don't let these two kill each other," I said to him, motioning towards Leon and Letty.

I walked outside and walked over to Jesse. I was a little irritated with Letty. I needed some air.

"Maybe you should put, uh, something on your hand, man," Jesse said, taking out and lighting a cigarette.

I had forgotten about it. It stopped throbbing. I looked down at my hand. There were several cuts and some dried blood. I guess I should have taken care of it. By the light of the moon, I could see an impressive size bruise starting to form. That would be fun to explain to my dad. I hadn't even looked in the mirror yet to see what my face looked like. I figured I would just deal with it all tomorrow.

"It'll be okay," I told him.

"So you and Zack got in a pretty good fight," Jesse commented.

"Well, anything worth doing…" I replied.

"That's awesome," he said. I was surprised by this statement.

"I thought you guys were really tight," I stated.

Jesse started laughing. "Could say the same about you two," he said.

I shrugged. Touché. That was a good point.

Jesse continued, "We haven't ever really been close. He's a tough guy to get close to because he, uh, really just uses everyone. And I got this attention problem thing and it always really pisses him off."

"That sucks. I guess I just seen you with him a lot lately," I replied as to why I made the assumption. What Jesse said made a lot of sense about Zack, though.

"Well, I's living with him for a little while. My Dad just got taken to County. But, I'm going to be staying with Leon now," he explained. "Wasn't really working out with Zack."

"How you know Leon?" I asked.

"He lives beside where I lived with my Dad. He's older but we've been friends since forever," he told me.

"Cool," I said.

"So how long have you been with Letty?" Jesse asked, seriously.

"Never. No. I mean, we're not. What makes you say that?" I asked flustered.

"Don't know. Just seemed like you are I guess. And Zack said that's what you got in a fight about," Jesse said.

"What? What did he say about it?" I asked surprised. It was interesting to learn that there had, apparently, been an entire conversation about the fight amongst these guys.

"Oh, I don't know. Just about dibs and stuff, calling dibs I mean," he said hesitantly.

"Awesome," I said sarcastically. "Did Letty hear that shit?"

He shook his head no.

"So, you're not together. But…you want to be, or you're about to be, something like that?" he asked for clarification. I wished that I knew the answer to this question. I didn't feel comfortable telling him the truth, or the whole story. I wasn't even sure if I knew the truth at this point.

"It's complicated," I finally replied.

"Always is with the ladies," he joked.
I laughed. He had no idea.

"So how long you been into cars?" I asked, changing the subject.
"I don't, man, long time. My Dad owned a garage, way out in East L.A., until he got sent…away," he said. I couldn't tell if his Dad's imprisonment was a sensitive subject for him. I decided to avoid it. I was not attempting to have a heart-to-heart right now with some kid I barely knew.

"Yeah? My Dad's got a garage too," I said. I thought it was really cool that his dad had a shop also. I realized that there might be more to Jesse than just fake id's and car decals.

"Yeah, Zack told me. I think I've seen it. DT's, right?" he asked.

"That's the one," I said, taking a long sip, finishing my beer.

"Oh my God," Letty groaned, walking outside.

"What's wrong?" I laughed.

"I might kill him," she said, totally honestly.

"Leon? No, I mean, he's really not bad. He's a good guy," Jesse defended sheepishly.

"Oh, I'm sure he's awesome," she stated sarcastically.

"Just got to get to know him," Jesse added.

"Can't wait for that," Letty retorted.

"God, you don't like anybody," I remarked, still a little pissed off. I was pretty sure that she picked up on it. I wasn't hiding it well.

"Looks who's talking," she snapped back.

"I like this guy," I motioned towards Jesse.
"Alright, yeah, he's fine. But, Captain Goatee in there…not so sure."

I just smiled. I enjoyed the fact that she disliked him so much. It was pretty entertaining for me. I knew she thought this would be the last time she'd ever have to hang out with him. I would hate to break it to her that I actually really liked what I knew about these guys so far.

"Really? That's too bad. I was going to see if he wanted to move in. So, what? You don't want me to do that?" I mocked.

"Yeah that's…funny," she said, still exuding her pissed off attitude towards me.

I just shot her a smile. Our eyes connected. She did look angry. I loved how mad she could get at me.

"I love that you're made at me for nothing," I said flippantly.

"Dominic," she said, exasperated.

"What?" I asked, still joking with her, which just seemed to be making her more upset.

"Okay, I'm not going to stand out here for this. You guys have fun," Jesse said. He tossed his cigarette out to the grass, turned around, and walked inside.

"Are you really mad at me for something Leon did? Seriously?" I questioned.

"Not mad at you," she sighed.
"Alright," I said in disbelief.

"Okay then," she stated in a dismissively agreeable manner.

"You want to talk about it?"

"When have I ever wanted to talk about it?"

Never. I guess that had been a stupid question.

"Where you been last week?" I asked her.
"Jesus! Are we still on that?" she asked. "Why did you get in a fight with Zack?"

Shit.

"Alright, that's fair. You first," I said. I knew that if I went first she would never actually tell me her part. Of course, I was going to try to pull the same thing.

"Fuck," she started. "It's not like one huge thing I've been doing, some secret project behind your back. I've just been, you know, fucking around." She stopped.

Fucking around? I really hoped she did not mean that in the literal sense.

"Interesting choice of words."

"You know what I mean."

"Nah, you better keep going. You didn't tell me shit with that," I said, pushing for her to continue.

"Alright, well…" she started but stopped.

"Yeah?" I probed.

She paused.

She smiled, "Alright. So you're not allowed to comment, okay?"

"Oh this is going to be good," I smiled.

"If you do, I'm going to be pissed."
"You're already pissed."

"Dom," she said seriously. She walked over and sat on the picnic table.

"Jesus, fine. I won't say anything," I said watching her move in the moonlight.

"Hector dropped out of school last week. He didn't tell anyone yet. I guess he's just waiting for people to notice. I don't know. But, don't say shit," she confided.

"Don't surprise me. I won't say nothing. But, what's that got to do with you?" I asked.

"Guess he's been bored because he's been teaching me how to drive, race, all that. We just been hanging out doing that," she said, avoiding looking at me. "That's where I been."

"That's weird," I said suspiciously. I think her mannerisms caused me to be even more skeptical of the situation. Why wouldn't she look at me when she told me?

"Why's that weird?"

"Why'd you keep that from me?"

"Cause I figured you'd think it was weird. What do you know? I was right," she said. Always full of sarcasm.

"You guys got something going on?" I finally asked.

"God, no. It's not even like that."

"So you just been at Hector's house?"

"More like his cousin's garage. But, yeah, basically. We've known them for a long time. It's really no big deal. And, I just really don't want to be at school. If I got anything else to do, I'm going to do it."

"Why do you hate school so much?"

"I don't hate it, it's just boring as fuck. I ain't got anybody like you do, breathing down my neck to graduate. That ain't my meal ticket. What I been doing with Hector, with your Dad, all that, that's my ticket. I got a couple more months till I'm sixteen. Then I can drop out, too. Till then I just got to play the game."

"Wow."

"What?"

"I just had no idea that you felt that way."

I walked over and sat at the picnic table. I faced her. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I guess it should not have been a huge surprise. But, from the way she spoke about it, she had clearly given it a great deal of thought.

"Well, now you do," she said matter-of-factly.

"You been talking to anyone about this or did you just reach this conclusion on your own?"

"Well I decided it on my own, yeah. But, I guess I been talking to Hector about it. He can work full time now. He doesn't have to deal with all the bullshit. I just want that, too."

"Why didn't you talk to me about it?"

"I don't know," she said confused. "I guess because I know you don't really got a choice. You got to graduate for your Dad."

"That don't mean you can't talk to me about it."

"Dom, you don't want to hear about my shit."

"Letty, I've always wanted to hear your shit. You ain't got to sneak in my window to talk to me about what's going on with you."

She laughed, smiled, and said, "I know. You just seemed really distracted lately. Like you got your own stuff going on."

The definition of irony. The girl I love doesn't want to talk to me about what's going on with her because I'm acting too distracted- by her.

"Hey, come here," I said, reaching out to her to come towards me. She walked up to me, her eyes glued to the ground. I brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. She lifted her eyes up to mine. "I'm never going to be too distracted for…you. Okay?"

She nodded. I realized, at that moment, my hand had not left her cheek. I took a step closer, my hand still on her. I looked down at her. She looked…beautiful. She reached up and kissed me. She kissed me.

TBC

---

AJ

Sorry it's taken so long. But, we're nearing an end with the Dom and Letty saga. Gee, I wonder if they'll ever get together…

Translations:

For the love of God- Para el amor de Dios

Get over it- Supéralo

No sé. Quizá cinco- I don't know. Maybe five

Pendejo. Si, manana, adios- Jerk. Yeah, tomorrow, bye